Lowering roof manually

[silver50]

 

I've been looking recently at Boxsters, and learning quite a lot but this is a coincidence..

My friend's 2005 2.7 987 is in my garage just now, keeping it off road for him until 1st March to tax. A few months ago he went to raise the top and heard something break/snap. I believe it came up so far and he then closed it manually. The clam shell is aligned ok and has seems to have closed fine. I gather this will likely be a cable issue or a snapped plastic end on an arm. If I find a little time to help him investigate how do I lower the roof/open the clamshell manually. I don't particularly want to try it with the motor incase of doing any further damage. I looked online yesterday, doing some searching, although the operation was verbally described, I couldn't make sense of what needs done. Do you have to undo some bolts inside the car with the roof up? 

Thanks 

[silver50]

Should the clam shell covering part still operate? Would this then enable access to the top mechanism with the rest of the roof up (even if roof unclipped at the front)? Or any other way the clam shell part opens for example to access the engine cover? 

Myself and the owner are quite surprised at how much we've read regarding what has gone wrong, but there is surprisingly little on how to access the mechanism/parts!

 

[Paul P]

One doc I have read seems to suggest the you lift the clam shell from the centre at the side closest to the rear window. Perhaps with a forward motion.  That appears to lift the shell clear of the “catches” and then you can play manual roof. 

Same doc (will link if I can find it) talks about popping the ball joints from inside the cabin with the roof up. Requires some faith and a long screwdriver apparently. 

[Oggy172]

I popped off the ball joints, fairly easy to do & there's illustrations in the Boxster manual which you can find online.

Mines now stuck in the up position, which means being a contortionist to undo the 19mm bolts to be able to lower the roof.

[silver50]

2 hours ago, Oggy172 said:

I popped off the ball joints, fairly easy to do & there's illustrations in the Boxster manual which you can find online.

Mines now stuck in the up position, which means being a contortionist to undo the 19mm bolts to be able to lower the roof.

 

Thanks for your replies folks.

Ours might be stuck in the closed position, or if not maybe unwise to try and open it electrically which is why I’m wondering how you do it entirely manually. 

I found this online 987 owners manual which is indeed helpful

http://www.cyberdesignconcepts.com/guenter/pdf/porsche_boxster_owners_manual_2006.pdf

Ive only looked at it on my phone (not easy!) but don’t see anything on the 19mm bolts. Any guidance on finding those?

I suppose we perhaps can try opening the roof the necessary amount electrically (to gain access to pop off the levers) but do it with care. 

[silver50]

Hi again,

To update this we’ve accessed parts ok but it appears both pushrods have been bent, one more than other. One white plastic end was totally detached from the rod through the way it had broken (so no reference point available).

Has anyone come across info on setting up alignment if needing to fit new rods minus old reference points?

I fear it being quite tricky unless there’s a good method. You don’t want to snap the plastic ends off new rods or indeed bend new rods!

Thanks 

[frozen]

6 hours ago, silver50 said:

Hi again,

To update this we’ve accessed parts ok but it appears both pushrods have been bent, one more than other. One white plastic end was totally detached from the rod through the way it had broken (so no reference point available).

Has anyone come across info on setting up alignment if needing to fit new rods minus old reference points?

I fear it being quite tricky unless there’s a good method. You don’t want to snap the plastic ends off new rods or indeed bend new rods!

Thanks 

managed to snap one of my white plastic ball joints last week and have spent several days fiddling with it and adjusting. I reckon the roof canvas shrunk/contracted in the cold as it was perfect last summer and on full close position in colder weather recently it snapped or pulled off the ball joint. 

so after some tinkering I think I've sorted the adjustment to avoid that - works fine now. what I did was....

assuming you've not got a reference point - on my 987.2 the plastic ball joint screws onto the metal rod until there are about 5 or 6 threads still available on the rod - using rod and original porsche white ball joint end. you fit these with the hood 2/3rd open approx - quite easy to reach in there and screw them on - you can count the threads free with your fingernail as you won't see easily - then pop back on the ball joint.

then what I did was run the hood to close position (forward to close) and measured the distance of the hood front to the windscreen top. when it was very tight to close the latch and also when fully open popping ball joints off, it was too far from the windscreen (I could comfortably get my thumb between hood front and windscreen top when fully 'forward' but not latched.

so open  2/3rd again, pop off ball joints and unscrew one full turn, pop on again,  try to close again - this moves the hood front edge forward a bit. when it was easier to latch and I couldn't get my thumb in the gap anymore, hey presto! and the fully open worked without popping joint anymore - and closed and latched well - all good.

you will also need to adjust left and right side ball joint to make sure that leading edge gap (hood to windscreen) is the same on both sides - might need an extra turn on one side or the other to even that out.

all the above assumes hood working and motor/cables all good - if not - much bigger problem.

ref push rods being bent - they do have a kink in them and they are pretty tough items - so maybe not as bent as you think - check out pictures of good ones on youtube and you'll see what they should look like - they aren't straight and I'd have to put some effort in to bend them. if they really are bent then there is something more serious wrong with the hood mechanism and I'd not try the above.

hope that helps

 

 

 

[silver50]

Thanks v much for taking the time to write and post the above. Very useful.

I have been wondering why the rods got bent (one in particular) but from reading online it does appear that if you're unlucky a rod can bend. My friend was about the close the hood when he had his issue, I think a lot of people go to open it when their plastic rod end fails. Perhaps on closing there's a greater chance of rod damage, maybe more strain. Not sure!

I could be wrong, but I have a suspicion nothing else is wrong other than a plastic rod end breaking. I suspect 90% chance new rods/setting up will sort the problems. The motors are working the clam shell ok so I don't think there's any actual problem with the motor and cables. 

We will need to decide whether to have a go ourselves but the info is very useful, thanks again.